ghost Stories

Excerpt from book:

The Buford House

Located on Stafford Street in Tombstone, Arizona, is the Buford House Bed and Breakfast. The Buford House was named after George Washington Buford, the original owner and builder of the adobe house constructed in 1880. The Bufords were one of Tombstone's prominent and influential families, as George was a successful mining executive. So he built the house to be one of the finest in the early history of Tombstone.

The Buford family lived in the house from 1880 until 1888. Annie Buford gave birth to several children while living in the house; unfortunately, at least three of the children died at early ages from diphtheria, whooping cough and other menacing diseases of the era.

The house has had many different owners over its long history. Sometimes, the house was used as a private residence, but it also operated as a boardinghouse or bed-and-breakfast. In the 1880s, the upstairs was one large room divided into smaller rooms by canvas walls.

Other noteworthy residents include two sheriffs, a mayor and a state senator. George and Annie Buford remained in Tombstone until 1890. Of their seven children, six were born in the home, and three died in 1886 of diphtheria. They were two, four and six years old.

We arrived at the Buford House with Polo, the producer of the Donovan show for 93. 7 KRQ After checking in, we proceeded to a variety of locations in Tombstone before returning to the bed-and-breakfast. For this ghost hunt, we were not told about the ghost story. Instead, Donovan wanted to know if we could figure out what was happening at the house by just investigating the phenomena that visitors had reported over the years.

We were told that the owners believed the house was haunted by the ghost of a man who had died tragically. The owners and a multitude of guests have seen this unidentified person walking inside the home. He also has been seen on the street in front of the old adobe house. Another common occurrence is that the doorbell rings in the middle of the night, apparently all by itself.

Guests have reported hearing knocking on walls, faucets turning themselves on and off and strange lights appearing. Once in a while, women say that they have felt someone touch their hair or stroke the back of their necks when no one is around. Knocking is heard in the walls, faucets and lights go on and off by themselves and mysterious lights move across the walls of the Wicker Room.

Occasionally the bed covers are pulled back, and women hear their names being called. Another interesting story we were told concerned a sighting of a feisty old lady. One witness claimed that she saw the old lady ghost rocking on a chair in her room. She went on to say that they had an argument about whose room it was. The spirit screamed at her, "This is my room-GET OUT!" But she wouldn't budge. According to the owners, this went on all night. With this small amount of knowledge, we started the ghost hunt. We split the team up to observe the three areas where the most paranormal activity.had been reported. After several hours of observation and note-taking, the team decided to call it a night. Donovan, Jerry and Polo comprised one team, while Bob Carter and I made up the other.

The investigation itself was rather uneventful. Most of what either team encountered was quickly identified as originating from entirely explainable causes. At that time, the Southwest Ghost Hunters Association was experimenting with near-UV photography.

We did manage to capture two strange photographs on the staircase. However, later analysis of the photographs created issues when we learned that there was a potential that the modifications done to the cameras may have created artifacts. At the time, the pictures created a lot of excitement, but after a full day of investigating multiple locations, we decided to call it a night.

With the ghost hunt completed, we headed off to bed. Bob asked me if he should set the alarm on the wind-up clock or not. I told him not to worry about it because the owners ring a bell in the morning to announce breakfast.

Later that night, a very interesting thing happened to Bob. He was just about to doze off when the light near the door turned off, and the lamp near the bed turned on. Bob raised up his head and said out loud, "Bugger off, and put the lights back the way they were!" The bedside lamp turned off, and the light by the door turned back on. However, the ghost wasn't through with Bob. At six o'clock in the morning, the clock's alarm went off, despite the fact that Bob did not even bother to wind up the clock. It turns out that this was one of the phenomena many people have reported over the years.

The following morning, we were told the ghost story of George Daves and Cleopatra Edmunds. According to the story, Daves shot himself after Edmunds refused to marry him. His ghost supposedly haunts the property now.

Our next investigation of the property occurred a year later, in October 2003. Again, we were with Donovan's Ghost Patrol. The strategy this time was to isolate female investigators to examine if anything unusual would happen to them if they were left alone in the rooms where previous female tenants had been harassed.

While this investigation was not very fruitful, there was one clear incident in which we recorded the sound of footsteps walking up the staircase. Cameras that were set up as controls clearly showed that no one was anywhere near the area when the steps were recorded 

Little did we know that another unusual experience occurred at the bed-and-breakfast a month after this visit. This one was reported to Josh Hawley at Tombstone Paranormal. I have chosen to include it here because of the multiple reports from visitors of similar experiences while staying at the Buford House:

 In July 2002, Jolene and I traveled to Tombstone, Arizona, and stayed in the Buford House, a reportedly haunted bed-and-breakfast. Before this trip, I was extremely skeptical that ghosts really were anything other than the product of overactive imaginations. However, the events of that night changed my perspective completely.

The Buford House is a plain, two-story adobe structure situated on a quiet street. The proprietors, Ruth and Richard Allen, are some of the nicest folks a person could ever meet. Our room was downstairs and had a private entrance with a little side porch where we could go to smoke. In their room were a double bed, a dresser, and a small sofa that converted into a bed. On the surface, nothing seemed unusual.

We knew it was supposed to be haunted, having seen it featured on Haunted History on the History Channel. But, I really did not expect to experience anything, Richard took us on a tour of the home and gave us a brief history. He said he did not want to tell us too much about the ghosts and what they did because he did not want to influence us. (I thought, yeah, because there isn't anything to tell)

I don't remember exactly what time we went to bed, but it must have been about 11:00. I slept in the double bed, and she opened out the sofa and made her bed there.

Later, I was awakened with a jolt. I mean an actual shock. I was lying on my stomach, sound asleep, when it felt like I was hit in the middle of my back with 220 volts ef electriciry. (Now this could not have been faked by the owners because my back was not on the mattress.)

There was a tingling sensation running up my spine and down my legs, and I could not move. It was as if I was being held in place. Then the weirdest thing of all happened: I felt the covers being slid off my body-not to the floor, but toward the center of the bed. Someone (or something) was pushing the covers off me. Then I felt a hand stroking my backside. I still could not move.

Jolene came to the bed and said someone had been calling her name so loudly, it woke her up. When she began talking to me, whatever it was that had me, let go. Both of us were scared witless. I got up, got folly dressed, and we spent the next two hours on the outside porch before we got enough courage to go back inside.

I did not tell Richard and Ruth about what happened to me because, at the time, I was embarrassed that the entity had touched my rear end. Now I can talk about it because I have had time to sort it out and realize, I have nothing to be embarrassed about.

Would I ever go back to the Buford House? In a heartbeat, only this time I would not be afraid. I think I would try to interact with who-or what-ever it was. 

Paranormal incidents from other well-known people have been reported at the haunted bed-and-breakfast.

Actor Bruce Boxleitner also had a rather strange experience while staying at the Buford house. The actor was in town to attend the first Tombstone Film Festival. The first night of his stay, he placed his wallet, watch and room key on the nightstand next to the bed. The following morning, he awoke to discover that his wallet was missing. Frantically, he began searching the room for his missing property. He looked in all of the drawers in the cabinets, around the bed and eventually started going through other pairs of pants that he had worn.

Suddenly, he spotted the wallet sitting on a chair in plain sight. While he thought this was rather odd, he didn't think much about it afterward. Later that day, after returning from the film festival, he discovered his two boys arguing over some action figures that were missing. The trio began searching the room for the missing toys to no avail. Meanwhile, in his room, his wife discovered the missing action figures, which were tucked away in the top drawer where she was keeping her lingerie. Again, the experience seemed odd, but not much thought was put into it.
Later that evening, Bruce was up watching television while the rest of his family slept. He recalled that it was a rather hot night and that he simply was not sleepy. After watching TV for a while, he had started to drift off when the left side of his body suddenly became extremely cold. He also had the sensation that he was not alone in the room. Fully awake now, he looked up and noticed a shadow on the wall next to him. Before he could react, several loud noises, which sounded like someone stomping on the floor, came from the other side of the room. He bolted up out of the chair only to discover that he was alone in the room. No one was there.

Startled, he left the room and entered the hallway heading back toward the rear of the house. Surely there had to be a logical explanation, he thought, as he stood in the hallway. He looked up into a small mirror that hung on the wall just opposite the staircase. As he looked into the mirror, he suddenly became aware that someone was standing behind him.

While the figure was dark, he could distinctly make out that this person was wearing attire very similar to what the reenactors wear in town. The most distinctive feature that he could make out was that the figure behind him was wearing a cowboy hat. He turned around to see who was behind him only to discover that no one was there.

The following morning, he went into the kitchen and talked with Richard. After Bruce told him about his encounter the night before, Richard related the story of George and Petra.

Ruth Allen, one of the owners of the house, actually saw the face of a man in December 1999. The apparition was in the front room of the house looking at the Christmas tree. When she saw the specter, it looked back at her and smiled. She wasn't frightened, she just accepted the ghost's presence. "We are open to it," she said. "We're optimistic skeptics."

In Search For The Truth

The tragic story of George Daves and Cleopatra Edmunds was sensational news in 1888. The Tombstone Daily Prospector published the story on April 14, 1888:

He Blows His Brains Out and Dies at the Doorstep of Her House

At twenty minutes past two yesterday afternoon five pistol shots rang out clear and deadly, startling all who lived in the neighborhood of Second and Safford streets. Before the sound of the last shot had died away or the smoke from the pistol passed into the air; half a score of people had rushed to the scene of the shooting and there beheld a tragedy of unrequited love and death. The principals in this sad affair were George Daves and Miss Cleopatra Edmunds, a 17-year-old daughter of the well-known former citizen, Eugene ("Stockton'; Edmunds, who died here several years ago. From all that could be learned it appears that Daves had for a long time been an ardent admirer of the young lady, and when he left here several months ago to better his position in life, it was, so he informed several of his intimate friends, with the understanding that upon his return they were to be married.

He went to a mine about forty miles from Casa Grande and there worked steadily for some months until he believed he had accumulated sufficient wealth to begin married life with her. With this intention, he returned to this city last Tuesday and immediately went to the residence of his intended, whose reception gave him no doubts of her continued affection.

Thursday evening, they together visited a neighbor in company with several others had a pleasant time until the hour for departure, when to his surprise and mortification she rejected him and accepted the escort of another. After returning home, he told his father "It's all over. I want nothing more to do with that girl." What cruel doubts and maddening thoughts racked his brain during the vigils of the night no one will ever know, and when his father left him early in the morning, he yet tossed on his bed with sleepless eyes, saying he had not closed them all night. When his father returned at noon, he said his son acted as if he had the blues, and he concluded he would not go to work but would stay with him the remainder of the day. A few minutes before the shooting the boy walked to the front door, then immediately stepped back and saying, "Goodbye, father", picked up a revolver and quickly passed out into the street. Before his father could reach the door to halt or call him, he heard the shots and stepped into the street only in time to see his unfortunate son place the revolver to his head and send a bullet crashing through his brain.

The following account given by an eye witness a prominent and reputable citizen, is not without interest. He said: "I was walking up Third street with a friend, and as we passed Edmunds' house, I saw a young man standing on the outside of the fence talking with Cleopatra Edmunds; she being on the inside near the gate. We had not gone more than 100 yards when I heard a woman scream, followed by a pistol shot. Turning I saw the young woman running across the street from the direction of Daves' house, which is situated on the corner of Bruce and Third, about 80 or 90 feet diagonally across the street from Edmunds', followed by a young man who was firing at her as he ran. When she reached the front door of her house, she fell, and he raising the pistol to his head fired, and fell just outside and in front ff the gate."

Another party who was also an eyewitness, corroborates the above statement, adding, however, that the young woman walked across the street to the corner at Daves' house with the young man who was talking with her at the gate. That there she left him, and as she turned to return home, Davis came out of his house. Seeing him with a pistol in his hand she ran towards home, he following, firing four shots at her and taking his own life with the fifth.

Of the four shots fired at Miss Edmunds, one made a slight flesh wound on the top of the right shoulder; another entered the back just to the right of the lower point of the right shoulder blade, passing through the right lung and body and coming out at the left margin of the right armpit, making a dangerous and possibly fatal wound. Immediately after being shot, she was attended to by Dr. Goodfellow and at 12 o'clock last night was resting easy.

George Daves placed the pistol to his right temple when he fired the suicidal shot, the bullet entering the head at that point and coming out at the crown, causing almost instant death.

Justice Shearer will hold an inquest on the body at 2 o'clock this afternoon, at Ritter's undertaking rooms. The funeral of the suicide will take place from the undertaker's rooms at 2 p.m., Sunday.

George Daves was 21 years old. He was born in Santa Clara Co., California and had lived here for the past five years. He has always been known as a quiet, peaceful and industrious boy. The deed he committed was the act of an irrational frenzied brain, his life and probably that of an innocent woman paying the penalty of his madness.

 

This article presents a problem with the ghost story. The Buford House is located on the south side of Safford Street, near the corner of Second Street. While the article starts out with the right location, by the third paragraph, it places the Daves house on Third and Bruce. This is a block north and another block east of the Buford House. The ghost story of the Buford House is dependent on the fact that George Daves and his father had lived in the Buford House on the south side of Safford between First and Second at the time of the tragedy. This is the reason that many people believe his spirit is still residing there. If this is not true, then the ghost haunting that property cannot be George Daves.

As I started to research this further, I discovered that research specialist Rita Ackerman had also found the discrepancy, and she took it several steps further. She looked at the court records for the inquest, Case No. 53, which was held on April 14, 1888. This document clearly defines the incident occurring on Third Street between Bruce and Safford. She then followed up this finding by analyzing the city plat map, deeds and tax records to determine that the Edmunds house was definitely located mid-block on the west side of Third between Bruce and Safford. She also was able to pinpoint the location of the Daves house on the northeast corner of Third and Safford Streets.

So how did the Buford House become confused with the Daves house? Rita was also able to put the pieces together to show how the misconception started. Later in her life, Petra married Walter Lombardi. They lived in the house on the northwest corner of Safford and Second Streets, right across the street from the Buford House. The events in newspaper articles could be misinterpreted so that the location of the Daves house was the same as the Buford House but only if the actual locations are ignored, and the ghost story goes solely on the site of where Petra lived later.